1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a miter saw which displays an angle of a circular saw blade with respect to a base and/or an angle of the circular saw blade with respect to a contact surface of a fence fixed to the base.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional miter saw has a base for positioning a workpiece thereon, a circular saw portion for rotatably supporting a circular saw blade, and a supporting member for pivotably supporting the circular saw portion about a pivot shaft which is substantially parallel to a rotating axis of the circular saw blade. The supporting member is attached to the base so as to change an angle of the circular saw blade with respect to a upper surface of the base.
In addition, a miter saw having a turntable for supporting the workpiece along with the base is well-known. The miter saw having the above structure is configured so that the turntable and the supporting member are assembled in order to change the angle of the circular saw blade with respect to the upper surface of the base.
In addition, a miter saw having a turntable and changing the angle of the circular saw blade with respect to the contact surface of the fence is well-known. With the above structure, the turntable can support the workpiece along with the base. The turntable of the miter saw has a rotating axis which is substantially orthogonal to the upper surface of the base so that the turntable can rotate about this rotation axis with respect to the base. The miter saw further have a supporting member for pivotably supporting the circular saw portion. The supporting member is connected to the turntable.
With the above miter saw, the workpiece can be cut in a slanting direction with respect to the upper surface of the base by changing the angle between the upper surface of the base and the circular saw blade to a prescribed angle. In another case, the workpiece can be cut in a slanting direction with respect to the side face of the workpiece by changing the angle between the circular saw blade and the fence for holding the side face of the workpiece to a prescribed angle. For the above cutting operations, the miter saw is provided with a scale indicating predetermined angles in order to adjust the cutting angle for the workpiece.
The graduations of the scale are provided in pairs on the supporting member and the base, or on the supporting member and the turntable to indicate the inclined amount and the rotation amount, respectively. The operator adjusts the inclination angle and rotation angle by visually checking these graduations.
Consequently, with this type of miter saw, since the gradient angle and pivot angle are ascertained by visually checking the graduated scale, the current gradient angle and pivot angle cannot be instantaneously ascertained. In addition, based on the amount of areas of the surfaces of the supporting member, the base, and the turntable, a larger number of angles cannot be inscribed on the graduated scale. Accordingly, ascertaining the inclination angle and rotation angle other than the inscribed angles takes time, which results in a decrease in workability.
Japanese patent unexamined application publication No. 2000-254817 discloses a miter saw equipped with a detector to detect the angle of the circular saw with respect to the base, and a display unit to digitally display the angle detected by the detector. In the above miter saw, the circular saw blade is supported by an inclining member. The inclining member is inclinable with respect to a supporting member provided at the rear of the turntable. The display unit for the digital display is provided on the supporting member. And a detector provided in the display unit detects the gradient angle of the circular saw blade based on the rotation angle of a detection shaft which rotates as the inclining member inclines.
With the aforementioned miter saw, since a display unit is attached on the supporting member coupled to the rear end of the turntable, the display unit is at a position separated from the operator. Therefore, the problem arises that the angle value cannot be ascertained without peering into the display unit, which made visual inspection difficult.
In addition, since the location of the supporting member is on the side where cutting scraps are emitted during cutting, the cutting scraps may land on the surface of the display unit, thus making the angle value even more difficult to see. Moreover, when workpiece is positioned over the base, the operator cannot see the display unit clearly due to the workpiece.
In addition, visibility is degraded when, for example, the numbers are difficult to read in dark work environments. Furthermore, according to the structure of the above citation, a display unit for the gradient angle and a display unit for the pivot angle are provided separately, so both the current gradient angle and pivot angle cannot be ascertained instantaneously, which results in a decrease in workability.
In order to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a miter saw with good workability which displays pivot and/or rotation angles of the circular saw blade.